March 16, 2021 (Tuesday)
Did you ever watch a movie in which the couple finally gets married and as they approach the altar hand in hand, the camera recedes and two words filled the screen? The words? “The End.” Well, we all know that the wedding is the beginning, not the end, of the marriage. The same principle holds true when we accept Christ as Savior and Lord. It’s not like you have your ticket to Heaven now, so that’s that. Oh, no, it’s not “the end.” It’s the beginning. You have entered a relationship with the Lord that will last not only for the rest of your life, but forever.
Christ has become the most important person in your life, not only because of what He did for you by purchasing your salvation at the price of His life’s blood, and then rising from the dead providing hope for all who trust Him, but because of what He continues to mean to you every day. Like marriage, conversion to Christ and His way of life is a commitment.
The Apostle Paul said,”But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14 KJV).
The Christian life is like a valuable diamond, with many colorful facets, and so we should seek discovery of every color of the new life in Christ. For Paul, the Cross of Christ was continually in his thoughts, as it should be in ours. The final lines of “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” speaks our thoughts: “..my sinful self, my only shame, my glory all the cross.”
Video by Maranatha! Promise Band:
BENEATH THE CROSS OF JESUS
Author: Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane
1868
1 Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty Rock
within a weary land;
a home within the wilderness,
a rest upon the way,
from the burning of the noontide heat
and the burden of the day.
2 Upon the cross of Jesus
mine eye at times can see
the very dying form of One
who suffered there for me:
and from my stricken heart with tears
two wonders I confess,
the wonders of redeeming love
and my unworthiness.
3 I take, O cross, thy shadow
for my abiding place:
I ask no other sunshine than
the sunshine of his face;
content to let the world go by,
to know no gain nor loss;
my sinful self my only shame,
my glory all the cross.